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Publish or Self-publish?

Self Publishing which is not Vanity Publishing

No one so far has talked about the kind of self publishing I have been doing. I am researching and writing books in a very specialized area - full documentation of certain American patterns of silverplate like Vintage, Charter Oak, Grosvenor. Collectors and dealers care and not much of anyone else. Not even the publishers for collectors would touch such a specialized subject.

Why bother? For the same sort of impulse that makes people grow heritage tomatoes - to preserve something valuable.

I research the subject in old catalogs and publications, on the Internet, at eBay, via collectors. Collect pictures. Put the book together on the computer. Run off 50 or 100 copies at Kinko's. Take the copies home and apply the covers (cheaper than Kinko). Publicize them on my website and also sell through eBay. I could sell through Amazon and some other sources, but since I travel I don't want the inconvenience of book orders coming in when I'm not there to fill them.

The net result is that I sell 50-100 copies a year, clearing about $5 a copy after all expenses (except for my labor of love or maybe that's that the $5 is for).
 
NY Literary Agency and the Rest of the Rats

They tried to scam me (NY Literary Agency). By now they've folded up their tent. I have a POD setup with Cafepress and use a Squidoo lens as a gateway site. I despaired of any more whoring around in the publishing world, being convinced that they can't read.
 
If you just want to see your book come true, choose self publishing. If you dream about becoming a paid author - and are prepared to take some punishment - choose the traditional route. You might want to try independent publishers. Most of the time you can contact them directly, without an agent.
 
Yes, but agents are the ones who mercilessly bitch slap you until you're good enough to face a publisher. I'd recommend an agent first.
 
I see what you mean, but if all else failed then that could be an indicator to the writer in question that they must improve before trying to be published. One thing that bothers me when listening to a would-be writer's sob story is how they've been "sending out the same manuscript that I slaved over for two years to agents and publishers and still no response," is that they seem to think their success can only come from that one work.

If I had a manuscript which was continuously rejected, I would continue to send it out while simaltaneously working on other projects, because as a rule of thumb, the more you write, the better you become.

I'm sure there are writers who have been rejected and have one hell of a story baking between the lines (Harry Potter was rejected for two years, and look at it now, eh?), but even then, if the case of every other option seeming closed is evident, then I think the writer needs to go back to the drawing board, versus refusing to get out of the Big-Kids pool.
 
I can share some of my experiences. For my first two books I made the mistake to publish with PublishAmerica. I have releases from them now. I wrote a third novel and it went to a new publisher who went belly up before it went to print. Then I had it accepted by another small press in Canada who promised to publish by mid summer but would not put a time frame in the contract. So, after eight months, I still could not get a release time for the book, and being told it would be almost two years there had been little editing done and no answers to my request for a time frame. We parted ways and I got a release. I learned never to sign a contract without a time frame in it for publishing. I rewrote one of my first novels and put it with iUniverse because it is about a subject matter which a national radio show want me to talk about. I have been on two national radio shows, Coast to Coast am and the xsoneradio show in Canada.

Jennifer Robins
 
We try to set the standard.
It's been working fairly well.

Publishing and marketing books is not a big mystery. You need a viable product. You have to be able to obtain the product at below 'normal wholesale'. Market intelligently.

It's just like selling charcoal briquets, canned beets, or anything else, to the proper wholesale/retail outlets. Be pleasant and imaginative in your marketing.
 
self publishing

Stewart said:
I wouldn't pay any company to publish me; that's straight out vanity. If you really feel a need to self-publish your material (rather than put it aside for future appraisal while continuing to write) then lulu.com is probably better for you.

But, first of all, think about why you want to self-publish your book? Are you self-publishing because you know you are not good enough to place the book the traditional way? Are you self-publishing because you want to see a book with your name on it? Do you seriously believe that people will buy your book just because it is published? Do you truly understand what you are getting yourself into?
Click to expand...

I self published, because I have a huge amount of written work and I wanted supplementary income. My book is written in the greatest discipline, and I thought I was pretty clever to self publish cause at virtualbookworm.com on the listing under the electronic-book-heading A Day Well Spent appears first by its alphabetical order, until recently when someone published a numeric title, which preceeds alphabetical order.
...it just cost me $100 for ebook publication, and I think it's a highly practical provision.

My Blog here is being viewed a great deal, and I think the people who are reading THE PROTEST are buying my books
 
Stewart, have you read the protest yet? If you read it, read it from my blog, because that is the latest version. the forum version is a draft.

...at my local poetry haunt, I've been reading The Protest with an thick Irish accent. My accent's like a crack of lightning indeed in that dingy hut where I read my poems, and they told me I ruined a pool game with my squirrely voice.
 
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